Protected areas

The purpose of the sites of the Conservatoire du Littoral is the protection of coastal and lake areas. Their public access is encouraged but is consistently limited by the vulnerability of each site. In addition to its land policy, primarily targeting sites of high ecological and landscape interest, the Conservatoire du Littoral is able, since 2002, to act directly upon the maritime public domain. This protection mode may overlap with other regulatory or contractual mechanisms.

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Conservatoire du littoral

The 23 Conservancies of natural areas contribute to better understanding, preservation, management and enhancement of the natural and landscape heritage by working on a network of sites throughout mainland France and French Guiana (https://reseau-cen.org/chiffres-cles/). The Conservancies of natural areas are defined the "land ownership and use", which corresponds to a set of legal and regulatory tools which characterise the Conservatoires d'espaces naturels managed and protected sites or the Foundation. It can be into major types of control :

• Ownership;
• Management contracts of more than 18 years (management agreement, use agreement, civil lease, rural lease, etc.);
• Management contracts of less than 18 years;
• ORE (environmental true duty);
• Regulatory protection (management of national or regional nature reserves);

The Conservancies of natural areas also help to manage sites under regulatory protection, such as national or regional nature reserves. In addition, 40% of the sites on which CENs are involved benefit from protection status (National Park, Nature Reserve, Prefectoral protection orders). Apart from any regulatory prerogative, managed sites correspond to IUCN IV and V categories.

As part of the protected areas database, managed sites are divided into two groups :

• Acquired sites, corresponding to Conservancies of natural areas properties and long-term contracts (over 18 years);
• Managed sites, corresponding to Conservancies of natural areas short contracts (less than 18 years) and ORE.

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Fédération des Conservatoires d'espaces naturels

The policy of sensitive natural areas (ENS) stems from the Law of July 18, 1985, which gives the departments the power to implement a policy in favor of sensitive natural areas, the nature and identification criteria of which are specified by each departmental council. In general, the ENS are likely to be of biological or landscape interest, to be fragile and/or threatened, to be subject to protection and management measures, and to be the place to discover natural resources.

The departments have a specific role in terms of biodiversity via their competence in terms of sensitive natural areas. They have two objectives:

• Preserve the quality of sites, landscapes, natural environments and flood expansion fields and ensure the safeguarding of natural habitats
• Develop and make sites accessible to the public, except for exceptions justified by the fragility of the natural environment.

The ENS policy is implemented on the territory through 3 tools:

• The legal tool: the right of pre-emption
• The contractual tool: management agreements
• The financial tool: the departmental share of the development tax for ENS (TAENS - ex TDENS)

Applicable texts

From a legislative point of view, the ENS tool is based on articles L113-8 to L113-14 and R113-15 to R113-18 of the urban planning code. The right of pre-emption in sensitive natural areas is based on articles L215-1 to L215-24 and R215-1 to R215-19 of the urban planning code.